Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a magnetic tape and a magnetic tape device.
Discussion of the Background
Magnetic recording media include tape-shaped media and disk-shaped media. Magnetic recording media in the form of tapes, that is, magnetic tapes, also referred to simply as “tapes” hereinafter, are primarily employed in storage applications such as data-back and archiving. A magnetic signal is normally recorded on the data band of a magnetic tape when recording information on a magnetic tape. Thus, a data track is formed on a data band running in the longitudinal direction.
With the immense increase in the amount of information in recent years, higher recording capacities (increased recording capacity) have been demanded of magnetic tapes. One way of increasing recording capacity is to increase the recording density by narrowing, the width of each data track and disposing more data tracks in the width direction of the magnetic tape.
However, when the width of the data track is narrowed and the magnetic tape is run within a drive to record and/or reproduce a magnetic signal, positional fluctuation in the direction of width of the magnetic tape makes it difficult for the magnetic head to accurately follow the data track, which tends to cause errors during recording and/or reproduction. Accordingly, a system employing a head tracking servo based on a servo signal (referred to hereinafter as a “servo system”) has been proposed and put into practice in recent years as a way to reduce the generation of such errors (for example, see U.S. Pat. No. 5,689,384, which is expressly incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.).